Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [30]
“In a moment.” She staggered over to where the fallen golem was still sparking elemental essence. She knelt down next to it and for a moment seemed to be swathed in a greenish shroud. She placed her hands on the golem and the last of its energy drained out of it and into the sylvari.
She stood up and nodded at the others. “Better now,” she said. She pointed to the golem and said to the crowd, “Scrap.” The golem’s body disappeared under a tide of opportunists.
Dougal looked at Riona. “What about you?”
Riona took some deep breaths and said in a low voice, “It just seems that every time we turn around, there is some lesser race that is making trouble for us. I’m just getting tired of it.”
Dougal opened his mouth to argue but looked at Riona’s face. There was pain there—and something else. Hatred. Instead he said, “We were going somewhere, right?”
Riona nodded and headed off across the marketplace without a word, Dougal and Killeen in tow.
They emerged on the far side of the blue-tinted sails and found their way to a more permanent part of the city, where there was more stonework among the wood, although it continued with the nautical theme. Finally she stopped at an innocuous-looking doorway. Riona knocked.
A hylek, taller than Killeen, opened the door and Riona backed off a moment, surprised by the wide, monstrous face. It was a frog-like being, in the same fashion as the charr were cat-like: bipedal, a great-mouthed head topping a round, neckless body. Its eyes were wide and accusing.
She gathered herself together and said, “Crusader Riona Grady of the Vigil in Divinity’s Reach. I have brought Dougal Keane for the general.”
The hylek responded in a deep, rasping voice. “Crusader Naugatl of the Bloodtide Coast, also of the Vigil. Come in. I will announce your presence.”
They followed the hylek into the hallway, and Dougal got the definite feeling that they were being let in through a side door. Whoever Riona was working for in the Vigil, he or she apparently didn’t want to make a lot of noise about their arrival. Dougal wondered how the Vigil would react to Clagg’s attack or Riona’s sudden burst of temper.
The hylek led them into a small waiting room. They sat there, Killeen composed as if a half hour earlier she had not been assailed by a golem. Riona twitched and rubbed the back of her neck, trying to work out the tension. Dougal left them to their thoughts, for he had his own broodings.
After about fifteen minutes the hylek returned and with a booming “Follow me!” led them back out into the twisting hallways. Dougal figured that the Vigil chapter house must occupy most of the block, with numerous exits and probably access to the sewers as well.
Finally they were led into a large chamber dominated by a great table. Maps of Tyria hung from the walls, and the walls were lined with heavy cabinets. At the end of the room a large figure stood before the fire in full armor, her hands clenched behind her back. When they entered, she turned and regarded them with sharp feline eyes.
She was a charr, and for a brief moment Dougal felt she could sense the hairs rise on the back of his neck, an instinctive reaction he could not suppress.
“Dougal Keane, Killeen born of the Cycle of Night,” said Riona smoothly. “May I present General Almorra Soulkeeper, founder of the Vigil.”
The amazing Dougal Keane. Your reputation precedes you.” General Almorra Soulkeeper thumped a fist over her heart, charr-style, and then extended a paw. Dougal could feel a cold trickle of sweat drip down his back as he gripped the charr’s firm, strong hand, which wrapped around his own, the nubs of her sheathed claws grazing the back of it. The general gestured to the chairs opposite the broad table. The two humans and the sylvari took their seats and the charr lifted a ewer. “Wine ? This is a good vintage from the Almuten estate.”
Killeen said, “Thank you.” Dougal said, “I may need the drink.” Riona said nothing but nodded respectfully. Dougal was amazed by her sudden change in attitude